Problemi relativi a una definizione del concetto di figlio dell’uomo tra giudaismo del periodo ellenistico-romano e protocristianesimo.

In this study the author analyzes the concept of the «apocalyptic tradition on the messianic Son of Man». He rereads the Jewish sources about the messianic Son of Man and concludes that it is more problematic to establish in the Judaism of the Hellenistic-Roman period the existence of an «apocalyptic tradition on the messianic Son of Man». The concept of «tradition» presupposes an ample number of sources, or the possibility to reconstruct a historical development by using either an expression or an idea. The case of the messianic Son of Man, on the contrary, is a specific case of rereading of the danielic image in a single group, that of the Book of Parables. Neither 4 Ezra nor the Testament of Abraham uses the image of the Son of Man (despite some danielic literary reuses); the Qumran and other enochic sources seem to avoid the messianic symbol as well. Consequently, on the basis of our knowledge of the messianic concepts of the Judaism of the Second Temple Period, we cannot derive the synoptic messianic use of the expression from an «apocalyptic tradition on the messianic Son of Man». Rather, the expression seems to be derived from a direct controversy against the group of the Book of Parables, carried on both by the historical Jesus and by the some Proto-Christian communities.